Desjardins Speaker Series: How to Build a $100B Company, Brick by Brick

How to Build a $100B Company,
Brick by Brick

Join Reynold Xin, co-founder of Databricks, a San Francisco-based data and AI infrastructure startup valued at over $130B and one of the fastest growing tech startups in history. Reynold is a proud U of T alumnus (BASc in Engineering Science) who will share his story of a founding team that turned a research project into a business with a global footprint, over 8,000 employees and thousands of enterprise customers.

This signature event celebrating Toronto Tech Week will discuss:

  • Origin story of the company and advice for young founders
  • Trends, opportunities, and threats in the field of big data and artificial intelligence
  • What Canadian business leaders, innovators, investors, and government need to do to compete
  • Lessons learned from a life spent in Silicon Valley
  • How to effectively commercialize research and what has changed since 2013 when Databricks was founded

In Conversation With

Reynold Xin 

Reynold is a co-founder of Databricks, where he has helped build multiple billion-dollar product lines.

Amanda Lang 

Amanda Lang is chief financial correspondent for CTV News, contributing to its flagship national newscasts and across its networks. She is also the host of Taking Stock, a weekly national…

event May 26-29, 2026

U of T Guide to Toronto Tech Week 

Toronto Tech Week is back, bringing a weeklong collection of events across the city to connect and celebrate the tech community.

event Tuesday, May 26, 2026 | 11:30 am – 2:00 pm EST

Interactive Viewing Party: Desjardins Speaker Series: How to Build a $100B Company, Brick by Brick 

Join your fellow innovators, founders, and curious minds for our interactive viewing party at the Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus! Come for the live viewing of the Desjardins Speaker Series: How…